Not quite sure where to put this so it'll go in here
A local cafe/arcade that I got barred from the best part of twenty years ago recently closed down. (For all that twenty years it was run by the same bloke, so I never went back there after getting barred.) It was a bit shit anyway, looking through the windows you could see that over the years all the videogames had gone, the pinball disappeared before I even got barred, and the fruit machines were increasingly just a load of shit £5 jackpot affairs that looked thoroughly depressing - either being completely turned off or with loads of bulbs out etc, so it's not like I was missing much. (It did more business as a cafe I think.)
Anyway, it's now been refurbished and recently reopened as a cafe+pizzeria/arcade, so I wandered down this afternoon to have a look. (It's also under new ownership, so my barring has finally expired!)
Imagine my delight to find two pinballs on site, both of them in very good repair and with a decent lick of volume to them as well.
Unfortunately they're both Sterns although I guess it'd be too much to ask for an old Williams/Bally to be kept running in serviceable condition on site, since the last one was made in 1999. However, they both seemed to play a pretty good game, Spiderman in particular I really rather enjoyed. (Plus, it's a real physical pinball, so even a 'Tier 2' pinball is awesomely good fun to play, just 'cause it's the real thing.)
I also managed to get my eye in with it too, to the extent that even though it kept putting the REPLAY score up, I was getting better at it at about the same rate of knots, so kept getting replays, and it also chucked a couple of MATCHES into the mix as well.
Having bagged the Grand Champion score with two credits remaining, I offered them to a couple of children who'd started watching me, always good to get youngsters interested in pinball!
The only other non-gambling machine was a Point Blank which I didn't play, I'll have a crack at that next time.
Fruit machine wise not much of interest except an old JPM Roller Coaster on 20p play with a £10 jackpot. Decided to have a punt but it was clearly on its arse, took £18 to show a single 1/12 (1/12 is the show that it's got a jackpot in it shortly, TBH I should have walked after not seeing one for a tenner through), fortunately it only took another £7 after that for me to get the coconut repeater for £10, which repeated once, so £20 out for £25 in.
There was also an ancient Smash & Grab but unfortunately it was out of service, that must be 30+ years old! (Think it was released in 1985.)
Nice little place, the staff were very friendly, I asked them if they minded me taking pictures and they said no problem, and I had a latte to drink. More machines are incoming apparently, along with a pool table.
Spent less than a tenner including my coffee, and was in there for an hour or so.
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